What Does Your
Sense of Smell Mean
to You?
Mood
Memory
Emotion
How Does
the Sense
of Smell
Affect us?
‘Our sense of smell is integrally
tied to our emotions, our
memories, our behaviours and our
health. Scents influence our social
relationships and family ties, and
they fuel our passions for people
and food.’
Rachel Herz, The Scent of Desire
So how do we know this? !
In October 2013, Fifth Sense
commenced a survey of its
members to establish the quality
of life effects of smell-related
disorders.
The results are very revealing.
Smell and Taste Disorders
Anosmia - the loss of the sense of smell
!
Hyposmia - reduction in the ability to detect odours !
Parosmia - distortions of the sense of smell
!
Phantosmia - smelling things that aren’t actually there
!
Ageusia - loss of the sense of taste
!
Dysgeusia - distortions of the sense of taste
94% say their enjoyment of food and drink has
been reduced
!
59% say they feel alone and isolated !
86% are afraid of being exposed to dangers i.e.
gas or spoiled food
!
78% feel angry or frustrated
!
56% say their relationships with their partner/
friends/families have been affected
!
44% have suffered from depression
Professional Lives
In jobs relating to assessing other people's needs and caring for
people I have been unable to adequately assess whether somebody
needs help with their personal hygiene, or whether young people
have turned up having just smoked a substance, or whether
someone has a lingering smell of alcohol on their breath. Many
colleagues and managers have not understood this as a disability.
Do I have bad breath? - Most of my appointments are taking clients
to lunch, this is a challenge, I can't taste or smell anything at all now.
It affects the occupations I can enter following being made
redundant as a solicitor. I currently work in a shop which sells
some items which are fragrant. I cannot assist customers
Social Lives
I wonder if I smell and I feel isolated when others talk about
smells and act on smells and tastes, especially when they are
enjoying them, I feel a huge sense of loss, I feel I am missing out
big time, and few people 'get it', they are incredulous when I say I
can't smell things, they say, 'it is so strong, you must be able to
smell it' Well I can't, it is a great loss to me
Having had several months of anosmia I now have parosmia and
eating out is difficult due to the smell of cooking and also the
fact that I can barely taste anything. Also going to the theatre
can be quite an ordeal as understandably people wear
perfume and aftershave which can be overwhelming (as I can
only interpret them as bad smells) and I can feel quite nauseous.
I have lost confidence. A lot of my social life was built on
entertaining which I don't want to do anymore. I feel excluded in
some way, like I've got a guilty secret.
Sex Lives
Smell is (was) an essential part of sexual attraction for me - being
unable to smell my partner's distinctive and lovely smell has
reduced my level of arousal and enjoyment of sex. Frankly, I
consider it a duty rather than a pleasure, which is a huge problem
for me and my partner of 24 years.
I am in a new relationship and am struggling with intimacy because
of the lack of smell. Even my ability to judge my own feelings for
this other person are affected by the lack of unconscious
information and real physical information.
Losing the intimate smell of the person you love most in the world
is very hard to come to terms with..... not feeling the comfort of
being able to smell my husband when he hugs me is a terrible
loss